Tag: insanity

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Active Shooter Drill

I believe the world has gone absolutely, totally off its Effingham rocker.  Today at my workplace which is on the 7th floor of the tallest building in downtown St. Louis we had an active shooter drill.  I understand why the company may have felt the need to do this in today’s environment.  Plus I believe that since one of our primary activities is public transportation, they felt like we might be especially liable to such incidents.  I don’t know maybe.

The way they handled this was to have small meetings before appraising of us of the fact that we were going to have the drill.  They then went over what our responses should be.  Basically it was a fire drill type of situation.  If you can you are supposed to flee. In a non drill situation, if you could not flee then you need to hide. If you cannot hide then, and only then, do you fight with whatever is at hand.

They posted signs at all entrances Monday morning informing us there would the drill this week.  For drill they had St. Louis police there, paramedics, and counselors were to be available afterwards if anyone felt the need for one. Continue reading “Active Shooter Drill”

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Madder Than a Baptist Finding His Favorite Liquor Store Closed

GUNI really surprised myself as how quickly I went from wandering around REI Christmas shopping to madder than a Baptist finding his favorite liquor store closed.

The REI here is St. Louis is in one of the richest parts of town. The parking lot is full of Beamers, Mercedes and Teslas in addition to the expected Subabrus, Toyotas and Hondas. We were walking towards the front of the store to check out. Robin never noticed him, but there was a young man, perhaps in his late twenties, walking around with a 45 strapped to his waist. He was obviously not store security. He did not look like a plains clothes police office in his Australian outback hat. I had to turn around and walk towards the back of the store as my impulse was to walk up to him and say, “Unless you are carrying a badge, you are one stupid mother f***er.

I do not want to live in a society where people can walk around with lethal weapons strapped to their bodies. I consider concealed carry laws an atrocity beyond words. I have lived 63 years and I can think of only one situation where I might have wanted a gun. Instead I turned around and confronted the man verbally which was enough. It is insane to have to worry about accidentally triggering some mental case with a gun tucked away somewhere on their body. If I verbally abuse you, flip you off, or cut you off in traffic it is more insanity to have to worry about a weapon.

My personal opinion is that anyone that is willing to carry a weapon, openly or otherwise, in a situation where the need for it approaches an infinitesimal small percentage is not sane enough to carry a weapon.

 

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Chicken at a Trillion Miles per Hour

When I was around 13 I found myself in a vehicle with a gentleman with a serious drinking problem.  This particular day he was far past intoxicated into stumbling drunk.  At one point he did ask me to drive.  However, having never driven anything more than a bicycle up until that point and being scared to death I unwisely declined.  In retrospect taking the keys away from him and being stranded would have been the better option.

Shortly thereafter I found myself an observer in a game chicken at 70 miles per hour.  From comments spewing from this individual’s mouth, I do not think staying alive was high on his list of priorities.  Someone once said that God watches out for fools and drunks, and there was a double dose going on that day.  No one was injured, no accident ensued, and the destination was arrived at.

Currently in Washington what is transpiring is a game of chicken Continue reading “Chicken at a Trillion Miles per Hour”